Binance says it has replenished 90% of the cryptocurrency stolen in Thursday’s record $6.3 billion hack and remains on track to reopen withdrawals on Sunday, November 1, according to a CoinDesk report. The figure is up from about 80% in the exchange’s previous update.
Binance (Credits: CoinDesk)
Binance’s $6.3 Billion Hack: What Was Replenished
The exchange detailed that customer holdings of bitcoin, ether, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD and ZEC are now fully backed. The remaining 10% consists of less liquid tokens that Binance said may take longer to acquire in the required quantities.
Binance had set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds, including $5 billion held in the same tokens that were stolen, with the rest being bought through public markets and over-the-counter desks. “Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users,” the exchange’s update reads.
North Korea Link and Proof of Reserves
The replacement assets are being funded through Binance’s corporate treasury and a portion of its futures insurance fund, with a partial deployment of the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) expected over the next 24 hours. The exchange also committed to restoring SAFU to about $1 billion.
Blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis have attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korea-linked hacking group. Co-CEO Richard Teng said Friday that investigators had found additional breach points beyond an initially suspected compromised employee laptop.
Binance also published a new proof-of-reserves snapshot showing coverage ratios at 100% or more for the named tokens, taken at midnight UTC on Oct. 31, with the full cryptographic proof expected by November 3.
Also Read: $6.3B Binance Hack Paradox: How Centralization Caused the Theft — and Saved $3B; 18 Years After the White Paper: What Has Bitcoin Truly Done?
Source: CoinDesk — read the full story there.
